Vintage sporran exhibition

[OC Richard]

The antique sporrans get around this in different ways, and the mechanisms I have seen involve a second external knob on the back of the cantle, that rotates on a ratchet to line-up a slot on an internal wheel that allows the hooked bar to slide out and so open the cantle - something in the way that a combination padlock works. Sometimes the second knob was a sprung slide action.

In practical terms, opening one of these sporrans is a two-handed operation that requires the sporran to be held stationary - which it is when hanging on a strap or belt.

Thanks for the insights!

Personally I want to be able to open my sporran without fuss. I'll pass on those contraptions.

I don't know if these goofy time-consuming ways to get a sporran open were cooked up in the USA, or Pakistan, or even Scotland?

But no thanks to one and all of them. To me Highland Dress is clothing, not costume. I open my sporrans in one efficent motion.

My view is that the mechanisms were there more as an inconvenience for a potential pick-pocket (or pick-sporran if you like)

or, as Roald Dahl, put it, "fingersmith" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hi..._(short_story)